Key and Strauss in perfect harmony

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but while Robert Key probably always had it in mind to try to emulate Andrew Strauss's feat of scoring a Test hundred at Lord's as a late replacement for an injured player, he probably had not banked on doing it while Strauss replicated his deed.

The resulting orgy of runs represented carnage for the West Indies, as the two centuries, Key's first in Tests and Strauss's third here for England in two months, enabled the home side to rack up an impressive 391 for two, following Brian Lara's questionable decision to put them in after winning the toss.

England's total was the highest on the opening day of a Lord's Test since 1907, when they scored 428 against South Africa, and might have been bigger still had they not come off for bad light in the 85th over.

But with Key on 167, and looking as flushed after 5.75 hours of toil as the peasants in a Breughel painting, Michael Vaughan accepted that England probably had more to lose than achieve and promptly accepted the umpire's offer.

Lara was left ruing his decision to insert England, possibly for the rest of the series should his team go down in a heap here. In their golden era, when the West Indies fast bowlers gave most batsmen bad dreams, they put sides in first simply because they knew resistance would be low and they could blow them away.

With Steve Harmison to call upon, Vaughan would probably have done the same yesterday. Yet Lara does not possess such riches in his attack and his thinking smacked more of not wanting to bat, than wanting to bowl.

Whatever his plan, it backfired spectacularly as Strauss and Key, both part of the Academy intake three years ago, both reached career bests in Tests.

The partnership of 291 by Strauss and Key is the highest yet for the second wicket at Lord's. Apart from stirring memories of England's recent dominance in the Caribbean, it brought rich entertainment to the capacity crowd.

It also revealed the steepness of the pair's learning curve since spending that winter under Rod Marsh in Adelaide, the one needed by the West Indies bowlers to get back into this match will be like climbing the north face of the Eiger without ropes.

No bowler escaped, though some figures, such as those of tall off-spinner Omari Banks, whose 17 overs cost an astonishing 111 runs, were worse than others. For some reason, Lara did not try to protect him as Strauss and Key cut, clipped and clubbed him to all parts of the ground. This was not so much deep end as the end, though Banks is too exciting a talent to be discarded just yet.

Tino Best, the lone wicket-taker along with Banks, kept charging in with some purpose, but mostly Lara was forced to alternate one set of dross with another, as suggested by the 52 fours scored.

Those four-balls, so rare against West Indies bowlers of the recent past, were fed to batsmen more frequently than sprats to the gannets at nearby London Zoo. Patience, at least in regard to waiting for the next boundary opportunity to present itself, was not so much measured in sessions, as seconds.

Key, whose form for Kent this season suggests he has probably collared one or two bowlers, was in thumping form after a nervous start. But while his foray into one-day cricket with England has not proved fruitful, only a wistful Mark Butcher, the man he replaced after the left-hander suffered whiplash in a car accident last Monday, will have felt anything but joy for him after yesterday's achievements.

Just as Vaughan's injury allowed Strauss to come in here against New Zealand and score the hundred that sparked the chain of events that led to Nasser Hussain retiring from Test cricket, so Butcher's neck has allowed Key to come in and strut his stuff.

Quite where Butcher fits in once he is fit again is an interesting point, though Marcus Trescothick, dropped on 10 by Best off his own bowling, could come under pressure following a lame dismissal for 16 after a lame pull off the same bowler dollied into mid-wicket's hands.

Butcher's predicament also places the driver of the car that shunted him in a difficult position, should Key do a Strauss and prevent the 31-year old Butcher ever regaining his place in the England side. Although centrally contracted until the end of September, the case for damages could still prove substantial for future loss of earnings.

Ever robust in his self-assessment, Key reckoned he did not hit the ball properly until he was on 80 and enjoyed more than his fair share of luck. Dropped twice, on 16 and 64, catches that should have been taken by Chris Gayle and wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs, he deserved the breaks if only for conquering his tendency of getting out to medium-paced dobbers like Dwayne Bravo.

There was a big hug from Strauss when he reached his ton just after a tea break in which both teams were presented to the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. Meeting royalty may be a privilege but it prevented Key from spending the break replenishing the lost fluid that may have prevented him from cramping up later in the day.

There were no such problems for Strauss, who is reputedly the fittest man in the squad. His connection with Lord's, after three hundreds in his three England appearances here, is bordering on incredulous. Just as well that other Strauss, Richard, never wrote an opera called Lord's, it would have been rewritten over these past weeks.

He fell, for 137, caught behind after edging a cut off Banks. The dismissal gave Jacobs his 200th catch in Test cricket, but that would have brought little joy on a day dominated by England's young turks.